Specific Local Need & Key Worker Status

Section 106 Planning Obligations

The Council of the Isles of Scilly uses planning obligations on planning permissions to restrict the occupancy of new units of accommodation on the islands to those with:

a Specific Local Need

Key Worker Status

a social housing need

for staff of a particular business

or a combination of any of the above

More information on section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and Policy 3 of the Isles of Scilly Local Plan which make this necessary can be found at the bottom of the page.

The model versions of the obligations were revised in liaison with solicitors at Cornwall Council at the end of 2012. This was done in part to respond to the requirements of mortgage lenders by including a mortgagee in possession clause which makes it more acceptable to lend money on properties with planning obligations.

Modification of Planning Obligations

Section 106A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 makes provision for existing planning obligations to be modified or discharged by agreement between the authority and the person or persons by whom the obligation is enforceable.

If an obligation is over 5 years old, a formal Application for Discharge of Planning Obligation must be submitted and the application must be advertised on or near the land with all land owners notified in a similar way to a planning application. (Due to the way an S106 planning obligation is used on the islands, there are very few circumstances in which it would be acceptable to discharge one unless it was in line with current planning policy, this process can be used to vary a modification which again would need to be in line with policy).

If an obligation is under 5 years old, an applicant can simply make a written request to the Senior Manager for Infrastructure & Planning to modify or discharge it.

Decisions relating to requests to modify planning obligations to the revised versions have been delegated to the Senior Manager for Infrastructure & Planning in consultation with the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Planning Committee.

The fee for the preparation of Section 106 planning obligations including a modification or re-draft will still apply as set out on the current fees and charges list (currently £130.82 + VAT (£156.98) for 2016/17). This reflects the officer time taken to process requests and prepare the obligations, make the necessary searches with Land Registry and obtain associated legal advice.

Specific Local Need and Key Worker Status

Planning obligations most commonly restrict the occupancy of new units of accommodation on the islands to those with a specific local need or key worker status. More detail about the criteria that must be met can be found in the two documents below which also contain application forms that must be submitted in order to be assessed to see if the criteria is met. Application forms must be submitted to the Planning Department.

(1) To endeavour to ensure that housing is available to meet the needs of the community in perpetuity and to promote sustainable communities on the inhabited islands, no general open market housing will be permitted.

(2) To ensure that suitable housing is available to meet the long termneeds of the community, residential development will only be permitted where it is required to meet:

(a) an identified and recognised local need or to accommodate a key worker whose needs cannot be met by the existing housing stock;or(b) the provision of staff accommodation for businesses on or near the premises where possible and where it can be demonstrated that there is no other accommodation available and it is not possible to recruit staff already housed on the islands.